康德的“决疑问题”和伦理学

On Kant's "Moral Paradoxes" and His Ethics

由于人们忽视了康德的道德决疑问题,使得他的伦理学以艰深晦涩著称。实际上,康德是讥讽和幽默的大师,他的伦理学是通过对道德现象中决疑的回答来建构的。他的决疑是讥讽的艺术,分为基本决疑和次级决疑。基本决疑———正题:必须遵守义务而不必顾及幸福;反题:冷酷地从事善行是否值得?———贯穿其整个伦理学。康德通过四个次级决疑对正题作出了回答,贞定了义务为道德最高原则;对反题的回答使他认识到幸福和仁爱的价值,缓和了义务和仁爱的对立,完成其晚年伦理学的转变。

Kant's ethics is known for its abstrusity and obscurity, and this is because his moral paradoxes are more often than not isolated from the study of his ethics. The fact is that Kant, a master of irony and humor, constructs his ethics through his answer to the paradoxes of moral phenomena. His paradoxes are art of irony, consisting of the primary and the secondary. The primary paradoxes the thesis being obligation with no regard to happiness, and the antithesis being whether ruthless philanthropy is the way impenetrate his ethical studies. Kant answers the thesis by means of his 4 sub-categorized paradoxes, defining obligation as the topmost moral principle. And the answer to the antithesis enables him to understand the value of happiness and kindheartedness, thus reconciling the conflict between obligation and philanthropism, and fulfilling the evolution of his ethical theories in his late years.